A powerful tropical storm pounded China's southern coast with heavy winds and rain Thursday, killing at least two people and flooding scores of homes. More than a half million people had been evacuated from their homes. Tropical Storm Chanchu, which was downgraded earlier from a typhoon, slammed the city of Shantou in Guangdong province overnight before moving north into Fujian province before dawn, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Two children were killed when their homes collapsed on top of them near Shantou, Xinhua said. The storm also flooded nearly 200 homes and cut electricity in the area. ... http://abcnews.go.com

Bush threatened again to veto an emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan after lawmakers slipped in numerous unrelated pet projects. "We must be strong on controlling the federal appetite for spending," the US president said during a speech at a signing ceremony for a recently passed tax-cut bill."Congress is now considering an emergency supplemental bill that can show the American people we're determined to be fiscally sound with their money. I've set a clear limit on spending that I'll accept for this legislation," Bush said."And if this bill goes over the limit, or includes non-emergency or wasteful spending, I'll veto it," the president vowed.Bush said it was important to put the brakes on the "growth of discretionary spending that's not related to the military or homeland security"....http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060517/pl_afp/usiraqafghanistanbush

In a burst of activity that ended 16 months of inaction, the House ethics committee on Wednesday opened investigations of a Republican and a Democrat who are subjects of federal bribery inquiries. One lawmaker is connected to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who had strong ties to Abramoff and accepted favors from him, will be investigated along with Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. A former aide to Ney pleaded guilty last week, admitting he tried to corrupt the congressman. Two businessmen have pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson. The committee also will conduct a preliminary inquiry into whether other lawmakers were involved in a bribery scandal that led to the conviction of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif. He is now serving an eight-year sentence in federal prison. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/17/politics/main1627993.shtml?source=RSS&attr=U.S._1627993

With war bills to pay, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is calling on Congress to pass President Bush's request for an extra $65 billion to cover costs in Iraq and Afghanistan this year.His scheduled appearance Wednesday before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee was his first public testimony on Capitol Hill since retired generals issued a series of calls for Rumsfeld to resign earlier this spring. Rumsfeld, with strong public backing by Bush, appears to have weathered that storm.It also was Rumsfeld's first opportunity to comment on Bush's announcement Monday that he is sending 6,000 National Guard troops to the U.S. southern border to support the federal Border Patrol. The administration has not said how much it expects that to cost, nor has it set a hard time limit on the assistance.Although the Guard troops will be operating under state governors' control, the cost will be paid by the federal government....http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/05/17/national/w011357D23.DTL

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly passed a fiscal 2007 wartime budget that would continue a string of large deficits and trigger an increase in government borrowing authority. By a vote of 218-210, the House passed the $2.7 trillion budget blueprint more than a month after Congress was supposed to have finished its work on the nonbinding measure. No Democrats voted for the Republican budget, which sets broad outlines for spending throughout the government. House Majority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, addressed conservatives' concerns about deficits saying, "With revenues rising and holding the line on spending we can in fact balance the budget in the next four or five years." ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1975266

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday he could not promise that the United States would withdraw some of its 133,000 troops from Iraq this year, although he hoped it would be able to do so.Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he did not believe U.S. troops could pull out of any of Iraq's provinces in the next three months and leave security duties to U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces.Rumsfeld and Pace, testifying before a Senate appropriations subcommittee, faced questions from senators about when the Pentagon planned to reduce the U.S. military presence in Iraq more than 3 years into a war in which about 2,450 U.S. troops have died. Rumsfeld said Iraq, in the grips of a relentless insurgency, had "entered a hopeful new phase in what has been a long and difficult journey," with Shi'ite politician Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister-designate, due in the coming days to unveil a new cabinet....http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-05-17T193446Z_01_N17304501_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-USA-RUMSFELD.xml